"For A Socialist New Brunswick": The New Brunswick Waffle, 1967-1972 by Patrick Webber Bachelor of Arts, St. Thomas University, 2004 A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the Graduate Academic Unit of History Supervisor: David Frank, Department of History Examining Board: Gail Campbell, Department of History David Frank, Department of History R. Steven Turner, Department of History Donald Wright, Department of Political Science This thesis is accepted by the Dean of Graduate Studies THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK March 2008 © Patrick Webber, 2008 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington OttawaONK1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-63717-3 Our file Notre ref6rence ISBN: 978-0-494-63717-3 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 1+1 Canada DEDICATION I would like to dedicate this work to those who contributed so much to my research by sitting down with me and offering their recollections. Their stories and insights were not only instrumental in piecing together this story but also in lending it a human and at times humorous touch. I am indebted to their contributions and sincerely offer my gratitude to them. Pat Callaghan John Earl Barrie Hould Ronald Lees Bill Ross Maxine Ross Dan Weston Richard Wilbur ABSTRACT In the spring of 1970, several members of the New Democratic Party (NDP) in Fredericton, New Brunswick, unofficially formed the New Brunswick Waffle. The group was inspired in part by the Waffle in Ontario and sought to influence the policies and direction of the New Brunswick NDP. It represented a fusion of Old Left and New Left politics and was comprised of leftists espousing an eclectic range of political ideas, including socialists, left-libertarians, and Trotskyists who belonged to the Young Socialists (YS), the youth wing of the League for Socialist Action (LSA). The NB Waffle was officially launched in September 1970 and soon became a prominent force within the New Brunswick NDP. The NB Waffle secured a surprise victory for its manifesto "For a Socialist New Brunswick" at an NB NDP convention in September 1971. This precipitated a split within the party that resulted in its suspension by the federal NDP council, and following an NB NDP special convention in late November 1971, the group effectively ceased to exist. Meanwhile, the NB Waffle itself had been dividing into Trotskyist and non-Trotskyist factions, and the events later sparked an intense debate within the Canadian Trotskyist movement around the issue of "entryism." During its short duration, the NB Waffle attempted to provide a radical socialist critique of the province that anticipated the growing skepticism towards the status quo that emerged in the Maritimes in the 1970s. The group also had a minor but noticeable influence on the NB NDP and the province's labour movement. As an episode in the history of the left and the larger political culture of New Brunswick, the NB Waffle was a reflection of the national, continental, and global political ferment of the late 1960s and early 1970s and represented a unique New Brunswick variation on this theme. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The inspiration for this thesis arose from a conversation with Ben Isitt in early 2004, during which he casually mentioned the existence of a Waffle group in New Brunswick during the early 1970s. This came as a surprise to me. No one else I knew was familiar with the topic and indeed all Ben knew about the New Brunswick Waffle was that it had briefly won control over the New Brunswick New Democratic Party. This obscure yet intriguing bit of data seemed like the perfect sort of topic for an M.A. thesis, both because of the lack of previous research done on it and because of my own peculiar fascination with inner-party conflicts. I have received much help and assistance in the process of completing this thesis. I would first like to thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, whose generous financial assistance made this project possible. The same gratitude is extended to the University of New Brunswick History Department for granting me an assistantship. I am also thankful to the H.H. Stuart Fund and the School of Graduate Studies for providing travel and research assistance. I want to offer special thanks to my supervisor, Dr. David Frank, whose guidance in the conduct of my research and writing were indispensable. His enthusiasm for my project was also greatly appreciated. Ben Isitt, who often was on the other side of Canada (Victoria, B.C.) while I was working on this thesis, offered invaluable research assistance and always shared relevant data discovered during his own research missions. Dana Brown informed me of useful sources that the New Brunswick Labour History Project identified in the New Brunswick Federation of Labour files at the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick. Several colleagues in the UNB history program also warrant thanks. Lisa Pasolli shared iv some much-appreciated research that she conducted for her own M.A. thesis; ASC Hampton was always eager to discuss my work and offer insights and I wish him much luck in his future studies; and Chris Hyland took the time to edit a first draft of this thesis while he was in the midst of completing his own thesis. Eric Hebert-Daly and Janet Solberg deserve thanks for their willingness to grant me access to restricted documents at Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa. I also want to thank my family, who offered moral support for this particular venture and who have always supported my various life endeavors. Finally, I want to thank the many friends whom I have made among my fellow graduate students in the UNB history program, some of them already mentioned, others not. Their companionship provided a welcome and at times adventurous respite from the often arduous task of completing this thesis, and I thank them for making my time at UNB an enjoyable and memorable one. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Dedication ii Abstract iii Acknowledgements iv Table of Contents vi List of Abbreviations vii Introduction 1 Chapter One: 21 The Left and the CCF-NDP Tradition in New Brunswick, 1900-1969 Chapter Two: 46 The Genesis of the New Brunswick Waffle, 1965-1970 Chapter Three: 77 A Year in the Life of the New Brunswick Waffle, September 1970 - September 1971 Chapter Four: 103 The Waffle Kafuffle, September 1971 - December 1971 Conclusion 135 Bibliography 158 Appendix A: "For a Socialist New Brunswick" Manifesto 165 Appendix B: Use of Key Terms in Manifestoes 169 Appendix C: The Moncton Transcript offers a view of the split within the New Brunswick NDP, 20 October 1971 170 Curriculum Vitae LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CLC Canadian Labour Congress CSDS Canadian Struggle for a Democratic Society CEC Central Executive Council CCF Co-operative Commonwealth Federation FYS Fredericton Young Socialists LSA League for Socialist Action LAC Library and Archives Canada NBFL New Brunswick Federation of Labour NBS New Brunswick Socialists NDP New Democratic Party PANB Provincial Archives of New Brunswick UNB University of New Brunswick YS Young Socialists Vll INTRODUCTION In April 1969, 11 members of the New Democratic Party (NDP) initiated a series of meetings in Toronto where they discussed what they saw as the most pressing political issues facing Canada and how the social democratic NDP should respond to them. All from Ontario, the members of this group believed that the NDP had failed to acknowledge the new realities facing Canada in the late 1960s. These included the rise of Quebecois nationalism and the New Left. The most prominent concern in the minds of this group, however, was the ever-increasing foreign ownership of and involvement in the Canadian economy.' In Canada, during the late 1960s, foreign ownership essentially meant American ownership.2 It was asserted that the loss of Canada's economic sovereignty would translate into the loss of its political independence. The answer was the introduction of socialist economic policies that would combine controls on foreign ownership and investment with nationalization as a means of protecting Canadian sovereignty,3 a fusion of nationalism and socialism.